


Legends of the Star City Mall

by LaMaupin



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/F, Mall AU, nerd shop/suit shop AU, the legends are the world's worst employees
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-21
Updated: 2017-12-21
Packaged: 2019-02-18 03:32:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13091541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaMaupin/pseuds/LaMaupin
Summary: Just when Sara thought that her shitty retail job managing the world's worst employees couldn't get any worse, the asshole assistant manager from the fancy suit shop across the hall decided to make it her personal mission to destroy them.Or: the Legends run a RadioShack and are about as good at it as you'd expect.





	Legends of the Star City Mall

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tumblingforth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tumblingforth/gifts).



> based on that one tumblr post that's been making the rounds (http://orarewedancy.tumblr.com/post/165972361138/orarewedancy-so-i-work-at-a-video-game-store-in) 
> 
> thanks to tumblingforth for the idea and also beta-ing and generally putting up with my yelling about the legends

Normally 11 am on a Tuesday wasn’t exactly the busiest time for the RadioShack in Star City Mall. 

Not that they had busy times. Their only customers were hobbyists too old to figure out how to use Amazon, anarchist who didn’t want the government knowing they were buying walkie-talkies, and the occasional harried parent who thought that remote controlled cars still made good gifts.

And considering that the store was tucked away in a mostly forgotten corner of the mall between Hot Topic and what had been a Border’s Books and was now a seasonal pop up store playing obnoxious Christmas music, Sara was pretty sure the fact that they had customers at all was a minor miracle. 

But then again, as far as she could tell they were the only RadioShack still in business in Star City (for a given value of in business), so maybe Jax was right and corporate had forgotten about them. It was at least more reasonable than Nate’s pet theory that they were an historical aberration isolated from the rest of the timeline.

Sara’s Tuesday morning usually consisted of checking the stock and placing orders, which only took about an hour because they sold so little, and she would spend the rest of the morning watching Netflix in the tiny office/breakroom. It was one of the few perks to being manager. 

But today Jax had swapped shifts with Ray, which meant Ray and Nate were on shift together, which meant Sara spent most of her morning actually supervising and making sure they didn’t get into more trouble than normal. And she hated supervising. 

She was at the register, keeping an eye on where Ray and Nate were having a huddled discussion near the display of remote controlled cars, when a well-dressed young man came into the store. 

That got Sara’s attention; his suit was nice enough that Mick was eyeing him from across the store, and she really didn’t need him robbing customers today. 

He made his way directly to the register, barely even glancing at the holiday displays she had spent all last week making. Well, remaking after Nate and Zari had gotten creative with the Christmas lights and mall security gave her a lecture about appropriate displays. 

“Excuse me, are you the manager?” he asked. 

Ah. Well that made sense at least. The downside to being manager was dealing with all the messes her idiot staff got into on a semi regular basis. 

“Whatever they did, I apologize, and I promise to give them a talking to,” Sara said. She’d found that getting ahead of the problem was usually the best tactic. 

He gave her a confused look, before shaking his head. “Oh no, nothing like that. I’m Gary, from Bureau & Buckle across the hall, and we were wondering if you have a microwave?”

It was Sara’s turn to be confused. Bureau & Buckle was pretty much the only reason anyone came to this end of the mall these days. They sold suits that were way out of the price range of anyone who had any right being in a mall, much less a part of a mall that also had a RadioShack. According to Laurel, Oliver bought suits there, which was really all Sara had needed to know about the place. 

“Uh, yeah, we have a microwave,” Sara said. “Why?”

Gary looked relieved. “Awesome. We were wondering if we could use it to heat up our lunches? We used to go to Claire’s, but they moved to the Herberger’s corridor.”

“What do we get out of it?”

She wasn’t sure she wanted a bunch of suit bros coming in every day. She had enough trouble with her own staff. She didn’t need more people wandering through and messing with the delicate ecosystem of the store. 

“You guys could use our bathroom,” Gary offered.

“You have a bathroom?” 

That got Sara’s attention. The nearest mall bathroom was a five minute hike down to the first floor, and well, it was a mall bathroom. Not exactly the height of cleanliness. 

“Yeah,” Gary said, giving her a conspiratorial look. “And it’s for staff only, so it’s pretty nice.”

“You’ve got yourself a deal.”

They shook on it and Gary left smiling.

Suddenly, Tuesday was looking up.

***

“Who were the assholes in suits?” Mick asked later, after Gary brought a couple of his coworkers to the store to use the microwave. 

“They’re from the fancy suit shop across the hall,” Sara said. “They said we could use their bathroom in exchange for using our microwave, so be nice.”

“You’re no fun,” Mick said, but there was no real animosity in his voice. And Sara had gotten into enough bar fights with him outside of work to know the difference. Which was probably not something she should be proud of, but when you managed a mostly forgotten RadioShack it was the small things that got you through the day. 

“Aw, I liked them,” Ray said, chipper as ever. 

Mick fixed him with an incredulous look. “You like everyone, Haircut.”

“That’s not true,” Ray argued. “I don’t like you.”

Mick scowled at Ray. Sara wondered whether she should step in, because she didn’t want a fight disrupting the holiday displays, but before she could say anything the tension broke and Ray smiled broadly.

“No, that’s not true. I do like you. You’re like the scary, arsonist brother I never had,” Ray said. “Well, I do have a brother, but he’s more annoying than scary, and not an arsonist, as far as I know.”

Mick continued to scowl, but he looked less like he was about to lower Ray’s IQ by several points. 

“Alright,” Sara said, cutting off Ray’s rambling. “I’m gonna go scope out this bathroom situation. Try not to destroy anything while I’m gone.”

Bureau & Buckle was even fancier on the inside that it looked. The store was lined with rows of suits in a variety of dark colors and displays of shirts and ties that looked like the cost more than Sara made in a month. She suddenly felt very underdressed in jeans and a jacket.

She spotted Gary over by a rack of silk shirts and made her way over to him. “Hey, Gary. You said we could use your bathroom?”

He smiled and showed her where it was tucked away in the back corner. It was even nicer than she was expecting. It was clearly cleaned regularly, and there was even potpourri. They were definitely getting the better end of this deal.  

On her way out she sensed someone watching her. She turned to find a tall woman, wearing a nice, if conservative pant suit and a nametag marking her as an employee, glaring at her. And here Sara didn’t know that Bureau & Buckle even sold pant suits. 

The woman was pretty attractive though, so Sara winked at her, relishing the way her frown deepened. For a moment Sara thought she might try to stop her, but she just continued to glare pointedly until Sara left. 

Sara promptly forgot about the woman when she got back to her store and found Ray and Nate sitting on the floor with the parts of a drone spread out around them. 

“Do I even want to know what you’re doing?” she asked, more exasperated than anything.

“Adding a claw grabber so we can snag pretzels from Auntie Anne’s without them noticing,” Nate explained from where he was assembling said claw grabber. 

“Yep. Definitely did not want to know that,” Sara said, retreating back into the office. After a moment she stuck her head back out. “I like the cinnamon sugar pretzels.”

“Gotcha,” Nate said, giving her a thumbs up.

She was making the next month’s shift schedule when Ray stuck his head into the office. “There’s someone here asking to see the manager. A scary lady who says she’s from Bureau & Buckle?”

Sara sighed. She had a pretty good idea what this was about, and she really didn’t want to deal with it at the moment, but she followed Ray back out into the store, plastering on her best Customer Service Smile.

She wasn’t surprised to find the woman from earlier standing in the middle of the store, a look of distaste on her face. 

“Can I help you?”

The woman’s eyes narrowed when she saw Sara. “You’re the manager?”

“Yep. And you are?” 

A look of annoyance flashed across her face at Sara’s feigned ignorance. This might be more fun than she anticipated. 

“Ava Sharpe. I’m the assistant manager at Bureau & Buckle. Did Gary tell you that you and your...employees can use our bathroom?” She stressed the word ‘employees’ in a way that made it clear that she didn’t actually think the staff of the RadioShack deserved the term.

Sara bristled. It was one thing for her to trash talk her team, because, objectively they were all horrible employees who probably did more damage to the store’s sales numbers than anything, but she understood them. 

Sure, there was a good chance that Mick only worked there so he could case the jewelry store down the hall, and Nate spent most of his time reading instead of working, and Amaya kept trying to free the animals from the pet store, but they were all good people. Even Mick. Probably. 

Ray was probably the smartest person she’d ever met, and Jax worked another job at the auto shop to help support his mom, and Nate was saving up to go to grad school. Just because they didn’t work at a fancy store like Bureau & Buckle didn’t mean this woman could come in and judge them.

But she didn’t want to let her win, so she hid her annoyance behind an amiable smile. “Yeah. He said we could use your bathroom in exchange for letting you guys use our microwave.”

“He wasn’t authorized to make that deal,” Ava said. “I’m here to tell you to stop.”

Who even was this woman? Star City Mall wasn’t even nice by mall standards. Where was the solidarity with other retail employees stuck in this thankless hellhole? 

“My agreement isn’t with you. It’s with Gary. So as long as he sticks to his end of the deal, so will we,” Sara said with a shrug. “Unless, of course, your actual manager tells us to stop.”

Ava’s nostrils flared. Sara clearly struck a nerve. She tried not to look smug, but if she did, well, Ava clearly deserved it. 

“Fine.” Ava leaned in, clearly trying to use her height advantage to intimidate Sara. But it took a lot more than that to intimidate Sara. She’d worked Black Friday four years in a row. “But I won’t let this stand.”

Sara continued to smile amiably. “Good luck with that.”

To her credit, Ava didn’t actually storm out of the store like Sara expected, but she did shoot Mick a dirty look on her way out. 

As annoyed as she was about the whole thing, in a way Sara was grateful, because it was looking like her week just got a whole lot more interesting. 

*** 

“Hey, sorry about Sharpe,” Gary said the next day when he came in to microwave his lunch. “She can be a little intense.”

“You don’t say,” Sara said, rolling her eyes. “We’re still good though?”

“Don’t worry about it. Mr. Bennett, our manager, doesn’t actually give a shit about it.” The microwave dinged and Gary pulled out his burrito, letting the other guy who’d come with him use it.

“Why does she care so much?” Sara was genuinely curious. Ava seemed like the type who thought petty squabbles were beneath her. Not that Sara had thought about it at all. She definitely hadn’t spent the entire previous night stewing about Ava fucking Sharpe. 

Gary shrugged. “She thinks the mall deserves better than a quote ‘obsolete store staffed by idiots and felons.’”

“I mean, she’s not wrong about this place, but the mall deserves better? Geez. It’s not like Star City Mall is the height of sophistication. A guy got stabbed outside of the Orange Julius last year.” 

Honestly that had been one of the more exciting days at work. Her dad had stopped by once the cops were done and gave them the inside scoop on the whole thing. Apparently one of the assistant managers of the Orange Julius was dealing drugs out of the back room. (Mostly Sara had been annoyed that no one told her about it before he went and got himself stabbed.)

“She thinks you attract ‘the wrong kind of customers’ or something,” Gary said.

“Maybe it’s you guys who are attracting the wrong type of customers,” Sara countered. “What is a fancy suit shop doing down here in loser’s row anyways? I thought you guys would be next to Macy’s or Sears, not down here with the seasonals and discount stores.”

“No clue,” Gary said through a mouthful of burrito. “Maybe the higher-ups are trying to clean up this wing. You know, so fewer people get stabbed?”

“You keep saying stuff like that and Nick the drug dealer won’t be the only person to get stabbed in this mall.” Sara brandished a plastic knife at him. 

“I’d listen to her if I were you,” Jax said, coming into the room. “Mick’s not the only felon who works here.”

“Hey,” Sara protested, pointing the knife at him. “I was never convicted.”

Gary gulped down the rest of his burrito and left in a rush, shooting her a nervous look on his way out. 

“Why’d you have to say that?” Sara said, shoving Jax lightly. “We don’t want him revoking our bathroom privileges.”

“You’re the one who threatened to stab him,” he replied, grabbing his lunch out of the fridge. 

“In a fun way.” Sara was aware of how lame that sounded, but it was too late to take it back.

Jax, unfortunately, also knew how lame it sounded. “Is there a fun way to be stabbed?”

She shrugged. “If you know what you’re doing.”

Jax stared at her for a second before making a face. “Ew.”

“You asked.” 

***

Thankfully Gary didn’t seem all that bothered when Sara showed up to use the bathroom at Bureau & Buckle later that afternoon. Ava, however, did. 

She cornered Sara as she left the bathroom. “What are you doing here?”

Sara wiped her hands dry on her pants and met Ava’s glare with a smirk. “Do you really want details, because like, weird, but if that’s what you’re into…”

Ava apparently didn’t think that was as funny as Sara did, because she just crossed her arms and continued to glare. “I thought I made myself clear: you and your staff aren’t welcome here.”

“And I already told you: my arrangement is with Gary and not with you.” Sara didn’t match Ava’s intensity but she did try to sound serious. She had no intention of letting her win. “And Jeremy made our break room smell like curry all afternoon, so I think it’s only fair that we don’t have to walk all the way to the Macy’s corridor to pee.”

“I will find a way to shut this down,” Ava said, narrowing her eyes. 

“You do that,” Sara said, patting Ava’s arm as she slipped past her. “Anyways, toodles.”

It took all of Sara’s self-control to not turn back to see what she was sure was a priceless look on Ava’s face, but she didn’t want to give away the upper hand. And besides, there would be plenty of opportunities for that later. 

***

They pretty quickly fell into a routine. 

The guys from Bureau & Buckle would come in on their breaks to microwave their food and chat for a while. Ava was always conspicuously absent, but that was fine by Sara. Gary and the guys were pretty friendly, and it wasn’t long before everyone at the RadioShack warmed up to them. Even Mick after Davis and Jeremy went on a five minute tirade about how the guys who worked at the jewelry store all wore ill fitting, poorly styled suits. 

Only Sara and Ray ended up ever using the bathroom at Bureau & Buckle though. Everyone else was suitably deterred by Ava’s one woman mission to keep them out and either made the trek to the mall bathrooms or waited until she wasn’t around. Ray, however, seemed immune to Ava’s death glares, and Sara was really starting to enjoy how much Ava hated her. 

She hadn’t had this much fun at work since she was banned from Star City Swords. 

Sara was spending her Monday morning considering how best to annoy Ava that day when she heard Amaya’s sweater meow. She sighed. Ray had been sneezing all morning, so she really shouldn’t be surprised, and yet...

She crossed her arms and gave Amaya her stern boss glare. The one she’d learned from Rip. (The one Rip had used on her on a near daily basis). “Please tell me you don’t have a kitten in your pocket.”

Amaya shifted guiltily and pulled out a small orange kitten, setting it on the counter. 

“You should have seen the conditions they were keeping him in. It wasn’t right.” 

“I’m sure it wasn’t but we can’t have animals in here,” Sara said. The kitten pounced on her hand and she shook it off. Little jerk. “Plus, Ray’s allergic.”

“I can’t just leave him there,” Amaya protested. 

Sara liked Amaya, she really did, but her penchant for liberating animals from the pet store was getting out of hand. But at least it wasn’t a snake this time. “I don’t care what you do after you leave work, but we can’t have him in the store.”

“It’s really not that bad. I’m fine,” Ray said. But his eyes were streaming and Sara could see the hives breaking out on his neck from across the store. 

“No you’re not Ray. Go take a Benadryl or something,” Sara said. She turned back to Amaya, fixing her with a stern look. “Take him back. Or I will.”

Amaya looked like she was going to refuse, but then Ray sneezed so loudly that everyone jumped. Amaya sighed, clearly not happy, but she scooped up the kitten and marched out of the store. 

“How did she even manage to steal him?” Sara asked, more to herself than anyone. “I thought she wasn’t allowed in the pet store anymore.”

Zari, who had watched the whole exchange with an amused look, leaned against the counter and shrugged. “It was pretty easy actually. The pet store has pretty much no real security so I distracted the kid at the counter and she grabbed the cat.”

“You know what, I’m starting to understand why no one likes us.” 

“It took you this long?” Zari asked, arching an eyebrow.

Sara sighed. She really needed to stop hiring people based on how interesting they seemed. “Go organize the radios or something.” 

Sara shooed Zari away from the counter and went to check on Ray. He looked like hell so she sent him home. It was already slow, and once Amaya got back from returning the cat she didn’t really need all three of them. Catnapping aside, Amaya and Zari were two of her more competent employees. 

She was settling in for another boring Monday when who should walk in, but Ava Sharpe, looking as annoyed as ever. And here Sara had thought she wasn’t going to have any fun that morning.

Ava marched up to the register with her usual air of superiority and dumped a folder onto the counter. 

“Awww, you got me a present?” Sara asked, voice overly sweet. “You really didn’t have to.”

Ava ignored Sara’s baiting and tapped the folder, looking smug. “I’ve been looking into you and your staff.”

“And here I thought you weren’t the grand romantic gesture type,” Sara said. She looked up at Ava from under her eyelashes. “How sweet.”

“It’s not…I don’t...” Ava stammered, taken aback. 

Sara smirked but declined to comment as Ava collected herself, clearing her throat. “You really are infuriating, you know that?”

“That’s what all the girls say,” Sara said, grinning in a way that could only be described as shit eating. “And some of the boys too.”

Zari snorted from where she was eavesdropping by the batteries. 

Sara didn’t miss the look Amaya shot Zari from where she was not very convincingly pretending to rearrange the headphone display.

Sara also didn’t miss the blush that was starting to creep up Ava’s neck, under the collar of her pantsuit. Good to know she’d still got it. 

“That’s beside the point,” Ava said once she regained her composure. 

“And what exactly is the point?” Sara asked. As fun as this was, she didn’t actually know why Ava was here.

Ava opened the folder, displaying a couple of sheets of paper, including the ID photos of Sara and the rest of her team. “The point is, Ms. Lance, that you are a menace to this mall.”

Sara rolled her eyes. This again. “Sure, Ava. We’re the menace.”

“You are, and I have proof.” Ava picked up one of the sheets of paper, and started reading from it. “Raymond Palmer has been barred from every bookstore in this mall for stealing engineering books.”

“Borrowing,” Sara retorted immediately. “He always returns them.”

“If he wanted to borrow books he should go to the library,” Ava said, picking up another sheet of paper. “Nathaniel Heywood has been asked to leave the movie theater four separate times for arguing with the staff about the historical accuracy of films. Last year Amaya Jiwe released several very large snakes from the pet store into the mall, causing a panic, and was only spared charges because no one was hurt.” 

Amaya looked like she was about to protest, but Sara silenced her with a look. A debate about the treatment of pet snakes wasn’t helpful at the moment. 

“You yourself,” Ava continued, either not noticing the silent debate Sara and Amaya were having or not caring. “Haven’t been allowed in Star City Swords since 2014, and I can’t get anyone to tell me why.” 

Sara shrugged. “What can I say? My ex was really into knives.”

“Kinky,” Zari said, earning a laugh from Amaya. 

This time Ava ignored the obvious innuendo and kept going. “Your assistant manager Jefferson Jackson was involved in some sort of accident at the University last year that resulted in half the physics building being blown up. And then there’s Mick Rory, who’s an actual felon. Every member of your staff is some sort of criminal or delinquent.”

“Hey, not every member of my staff,” Sara protested. “Zari here hasn’t been banned from anywhere.” 

Zari turned away, trying - and failing - to hide a guilty look, and Sara remembered the kitten incident from earlier. “Yet.”

“See, that’s exactly the problem,” Ava said. “You and everyone who works here can’t be trusted. And when I bring all this to mall operations, they’ll surely see it my way.”

“Which you’ll do unless we stop using your bathroom, yeah yeah I get it,” Sara finished for her, waving a hand dismissively. “But as fun as this has been, you’re not going to do that.” 

“And why, exactly, is that?” Ava asked.

Sara was torn between wanting to smack that smug look right off of her face and wanting to reach across the counter, grab her by the lapels of her stupid pantsuit, and kiss her just to see the look on her face. She shook that thought off, because as satisfying as that would be to see Ava squirm, it wouldn’t actually accomplish anything. 

So she repressed that instinct and instead leaned forward, matching Ava’s smug look with one of her own. After all, she still had a few tricks up her sleeve. “Because you want to be manager of that fancy ass store. And, given that it’s independent, you probably want in with the owners too.”

Ava raised her eyebrows skeptically, which Sara took to mean that she assumed correctly. “It’s pretty clear from your whole thing that you think you’re better than a lowly assistant manager. But the thing is, if you go to mall operations, they’ll go to your bosses, who won’t like that you went over their heads about something so trivial. And the next thing you know, Gary will be getting promoted over you.”

Ava scoffed. “You can’t possibly know that.”

“I’ve worked in this mall for going on five years now,” Sara said with a shrug. “I’ve seen ten different versions of this exact same thing happen, and if you think it ever works out the way you want it to, you’re not as smart as I think you are.”

This time Ava looked like she was actually considering what Sara was saying. Not that she was happy about it. She worked her jaw, but instead of arguing she grabbed her folder and stalked out of the store. 

“Come back soon,” Sara called after her. “I miss you already.”

Sara smiled to herself as Ava left. She really enjoyed winning. 

Her gloating was interrupted by Zari, who went back to leaning against the counter. “Jax was right, you’re totally into her.”

Sara scoffed. “I’m not into her. I hate her.”

“That entire conversation says otherwise,” Zari said, rolling her eyes. “You were flirting.”

“Sure, she’d be hot if she took that stick out of her ass,” Sara conceded. They were all thinking it after all. “But that’s just because I have eyes. Not because I like her. And besides, I was only flirting because it annoys her.”

Zari clearly didn’t believe her, but whatever, Zari had only worked there for a couple of months. She barely knew her. 

“She is your type,” Amaya said. 

Sara shot her a betrayed look. Of everyone, Amaya was the one she expected to be on her side. “Et tu, Amaya?”

“Don’t be dramatic,” Amaya said, clearly unimpressed. “I’ve heard enough stories about Nyssa to know that you have a thing for imposing women.”

She was going to kill Ray. He was the only one who had been around when everything had gone down with Nyssa, which meant this could only be his fault. Big gossip that he was.

“Don’t you two have work to do?” Sara asked. It was an evasion, and not a particularly good one.

Amaya raised an eyebrow, unconvinced, but didn’t press the issue. 

Just when exactly had her staff decided it was okay to talk back like this? She had never talked back to Rip like this. (She definitely had.) She really needed better employees. Or maybe friends outside of work. One of the two. 

***

Sara wasn’t avoiding Bureau & Buckle. It was just that she had Tuesday off and Ava worked the late shift on Wednesday (which she only knew because Nate had begged her not to schedule him Wednesday evenings) and on Thursday she needed to swing by the perfume counter at Macy’s on her break to get Laurel’s Christmas present anyways, which took her right by the mall bathrooms, so she’d just used those. 

She wasn’t avoiding Bureau & Buckle, and she definitely wasn’t avoiding Ava. Because that would suggest that there was something to what Zari and Amaya had said, which there wasn’t. 

Sara didn’t like Ava, she just enjoyed annoying her. Laurel always said she was a brat after all.

So on Friday she had to go back. She didn’t want Ava to think she’d won with that little stunt after all. 

But Ava barely spared her a glance on her way in. Not even when she blew her a kiss. 

Well. That wouldn’t do. 

On her way back out, Sara sidled up to where Ava was organizing a rack of ties. “What, no lectures today? Did I finally break you?”

“Better women than you have tried,” Ava deadpanned, not even bothering to look up from what she was doing.

That got Sara’s attention. Not that she was all that surprised. No woman as dedicated to pantsuits as Ava Sharpe could possibly be straight. Not that she cared. It was just a point of interest was all. 

“Was that a joke? I didn’t know it was possible.”

Ava didn’t respond, instead giving Sara a once over. “It’s good to see you looking at least somewhat professional for once.” 

Admittedly, Sara was wearing a nicer sweater than normal because she was having dinner at Laurel’s, but she didn’t appreciate Ava’s tone. “Well, not all of us can afford five versions of the same pantsuit.”

“Seven.” 

“What?”

“I have seven suits,” Ava said. “But they’re not all the same, which would be apparent if you knew anything about suits. Now. Is there something you needed or are you just here to annoy me?”

Sara studied Ava. Something had changed. Rather than annoyed, Ava seemed vaguely amused by Sara. This wasn’t the plan, but Sara had to admit it was almost as fun. 

“Just wondering how operation destroy Sara Lance is going. In case I need to make preparations or something.” 

“Well you’re here bothering me while your staff are destroying your store,” Ava said, looking over Sara’s shoulder. “So not great.”

Sara turned just in time to see Nate go tumbling into the Christmas display while Zari laughed and Jax shook his head. She sighed. That’s what she gets for thinking that she could leave Jax in charge for five minutes. 

“Well this has been fun,” Sara said, throwing Ava an ironic salute as she left to go yell at her team. “See you tomorrow.”

Ava rolled her eyes and turned back to the tie rack, but not before Sara caught the hint of a smile pull at the corner of her mouth. 

And here Sara hadn’t thought that was possible. 

***

So maybe she had gone a little overboard. But the manager at Hot Topic owed her a favor from that time she’d let him use Mick as a bouncer when some only-famous-to-pre-teen-girls actor had come for a signing, so he let her take her pick of the faux edgy t-shirts. 

She paired that with her rattiest jeans and Jax’s too large hoodie, and sure, it was a lot of trouble to go to just to annoy someone, but it wasn’t like she had anything better to do. 

Jax, of course, saw right through it. 

“You know, most girls dress up when they want to impress their crush,” he said, watching her as she used her phone to make sure her hair was just the right amount of messy. 

“Ava isn’t my crush,” she said, tugging on the collar of her t-shirt in an attempt to stretch it out. “This isn’t high school.”

“Sure,” Jax said, clearly not buying it. “So you’re just, what? Protesting the dress code that corporate hasn’t enforced since 2013?” 

“Exactly.” 

“The lady doth protest too much,” Jax said, rolling his eyes.

“Remind me to stop scheduling you with Nate,” she said. “Now, drop it or I’ll schedule you for the day after Christmas.”

“You know my mom doesn’t like it if I work that day,” he protested. 

Sara shrugged. It may technically have been an abuse of power, but she didn’t care. 

Before he could respond, Sara spotted Martin, one of their few regulars and - weirdly - a friend of Jax’s, on his way into the store.

“Hey look, the Professor’s here,” she said. “Why don’t you go, I don’t know, do you job, and help him.”

“Fine,” Jax grumbled. “But I’m not working the day after Christmas.”

“Keep sassing me and we’ll see about that,” Sara shot back at him. She smiled at Martin on her way out of the store. “Hi Professor.”

“Oh hello Ms. Lance.” He took in her appearance, a look somewhere between confusion and judgment flashing across his face. “You’re looking quite...unkempt today.” 

“That’s the idea,” she said, not bothering to explain further. 

She left him to talk to Jax and went to find Ava, who was, predictably, scowling at the back of the customer Gary was helping. When she spotted Sara, her scowl turned into an exasperated frown. Man, Sara really enjoyed how easy it was to get under her skin. 

“Ava, heyyyy,” Sara drawled, batting her eyelashes. 

“Is there a reason that you’re dressed like a stoner from 2007?” Ava asked.

“Just living my best life.” Sara shot her a cheery grin that probably boarded on shit eating if she was being honest. 

Ava sighed. “This is because I said you looked professional the other day, isn’t it?”

“Or maybe I just like the way your nose crinkles in distaste when you see me,” Sara said. 

“Don’t you have something better to do than annoy me at work?” Ava asked, sounding bored. 

If she thought that boredom would discourage Sara, well, she didn’t know Sara at all. 

“I don’t know if you’re familiar with my store,” Sara said, “but we have about three customers a day and are perpetually overstaffed, so no, I don’t have anything better to do.” 

“How do you manage to stay in business?” Ava asked, sounding genuinely curious. “Didn’t RadioShack go bankrupt earlier this year?”

It was a valid question. She’d worked there for nearly five years and she’d never met anyone from corporate, aside from an occasional email about some policy change no one ever enforced. But as long as she kept getting paid she really didn’t care. 

“Some questions are better left unanswered,” she said with a shrug. “And it’s not like business is exactly booming for you guys either.”

“We do best in the spring and summer, during wedding season,” Ava explained. “People don’t spend money on formal wear around the holidays.” 

“So what you’re saying is that you also have nothing better to do than let me bother you at work.” Sara said, cocking her head and smirking at Ava. “Although if we put our heads together I’m sure we could find a more fun way to entertain ourselves. What do you say?”

“Despite your chronic underachieving, you seem like a smart woman,” Ava said. “So I’m going to assume you can figure out the answer to that yourself.”

“You’re no fun, you know that?” Sara asked, taking satisfaction in the slight blush she spots making its way up Ava’s neck. 

“I try not to be.”

She really couldn’t decide whether she liked smug annoying Ava or pretending to be bored by her Ava better. And that didn’t even include straight up mad at her Ava, which was also fun. 

Damn.

Jax was right. 

She liked Ava. As in, actually enjoyed her presence and maybe even wanted Ava to like her back. 

Well shit. 

***

“Dammit Nate, pick up.”

The phone rang once and went straight to voicemail, which meant Nate was purposefully ignoring her. Smart man. Too bad she was going to have to kill him.  

Of course the one time the store actually got busy and she couldn’t reach any of her staff. Typical. 

It was the Saturday before Christmas, which, granted, was usually one of their busier days, but nothing she couldn’t handle with one or two other people. Except Ray had called in sick and Amaya was already in Detroit for the holidays and no one had heard from Mick for a couple of days, which mean he was probably in jail again. Jax worked at the auto shop on Saturdays, which just left her and Zari to cover the rush. 

Which again, would have been fine, expect Zari had agreed to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in exchange for getting to take off early. Sara agreed because getting people to work Christmas was like pulling teeth even with overtime, and she’d thought that the rush was over. 

Except apparently there were 20% off coupons in the evening paper, and now it was 7pm, the store was full of last minute Christmas shoppers, and Nate wasn’t answering his damn phone. 

Well, looked like she was going it alone. 

She was attempting to convince a woman that yes she was sure they didn’t have any more of the particular model of headphones pictured on the coupon because they did not, in fact, stock that model, when she spotted Ava come into the store. 

As much as she enjoyed any excuse to bother Ava, she really didn’t have time right now. For once, she actually had to do her job. 

Ava, however, just took up position at the register and started checking people out. She didn’t even say anything until Sara managed to extract herself from first one then another customer asking about the damn coupon. She really hated coupons. 

“Last I checked you don’t actually work here,” Sara said, opening the second register. 

Ava shrugged and kept working. “Do you want my help or not?”

Sara looked at the line and the customers clamoring for her attention and sighed. She really couldn’t afford to look a gift horse in the mouth. “They’re not allowed to combine coupons and you have to hit the gift receipt button twice to actually get it to print.” 

They worked well together. Ava knew what she was doing, only occasionally asking a question about the more specific aspects to the store’s system, which let Sara deal with the needier customers and handle things like a man walking directly into a display and knocking drone kits all over the floor or a woman trying to pass fake coupons. (The only thing worse than real coupons were fake coupons). 

When the rush finally died down over two hours later and the store was mercifully quiet Sara turned to Ava. “Thanks for the save.”

“Of course,” Ava said, leaning back against the register. “I was on my way out and it seemed like you needed help.” 

“Well I appreciate it,” Sara said, studying her. She’d expected Ava to be smug about it, or at least to rub it in that the one time the store was busy was also the one time she wasn’t overstaffed, but she didn’t. She seemed genuinely concerned. It was nice. 

Ava caught her staring and smirked slightly. Now it was Sara’s turn to furiously try to hide a blush. 

Sara cleared her throat, which sounded too loud in the suddenly tense silence. “So, you seemed very familiar with our system.”

Ava had the audacity to actually laugh at that. Sara would be mad if she wasn’t so...well...whatever she was right then. Charmed by the sound of Ava Sharpe laughing maybe.

“I’ve worked in retail my entire adult life,” Ava said with a shrug. “I know my way around a cash register.” 

Sara smirked. She really couldn’t help herself. Not when Ava made it this easy. “I bet that’s not the only thing you know your way around.” 

“Do you ever stop?” Ava asked, shaking her head. But her voice was more amused than anything. 

“It’s part of my charm,” Sara said. “Don’t act like you’re immune to it.” 

“I’m not.” 

Ava’s voice was quiet, and if Sara didn’t know any better she’d describe it as breathy. But Sara knew her well enough that she knew that Ava Sharpe didn’t do breathy, she --

And then Ava hands were on her face and she was kissing her. 

Oh.

It was softer than Sara had imagined. Not that she’d imagined kissing Ava. (She had definitely imagined kissing Ava).

After a moment Ava pulled away, looking down at Sara with more tenderness than Sara knew she was capable of. And then something shifted in her eyes and a questioning look flashed across her face. 

Sara took that as her cue to lean up and kiss her back. Thoroughly. 

Which, of course, was the moment her phone started ringing, forcing Sara to break the kiss. Goddamn Nate and his goddamn horrible timing. 

“I’ll let you take that,” Ava said, extricating herself from where Sara had pushed her up against the counter. 

“It’s fine,” Sara said, sending Nate to voicemail. She looked around the store. It was a mess, but nothing that she couldn’t pass off to Nate and Jax who were opening tomorrow. Served them right anyways. “I have to close up here, but if you want to hang out for a couple minutes…”

She left the invitation hanging. 

Ava smiled. “I’ll wait.” 

***

When she got to work on Monday Sara found Nate and Zari grinning at her in a way that was immediately suspicious. 

“What did you do?”

“Jax and I were going over the week’s security footage yesterday,” Nate said. “And we found something really interesting.”

Sara had the distinct feeling she knew where this was going. She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. It was too early for this. “At least tell me you didn’t email it to the entire team?” 

Zari at least had the good grace to look guilty. Nate, however, did not. 

“You did, didn’t you.” 

“Pretty boy owes me fifty bucks,” Mick said, appearing out of the back. “Told you she’d hook up with pantsuit.” 

He spotted Sara and gave her an approving nod. 

Well, at least he was back from wherever he’d spent the weekend. That was something. 

Sara sighed. She really needed better friends. 

**Author's Note:**

> look, i know i know nothing about retail, so just go with it


End file.
